Build your own NAS: a Canadian parts-and-cost guide

The parts, and why each one

Board with CPU

Mini-ITX board, soldered Intel N100, 6× SATA

6 W TDP, four cores, six chipset SATA ports, one free M.2. The heart of the build.

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Memory

16 GB SO-DIMM (DDR4 or DDR5 to match the board)

A single stick, matched to the board. Do not plan past 16 GB on the N100.

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Boot drive

NVMe or SATA SSD, 128–256 GB

For the OS only. No USB sticks: they die under constant writes.

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Case

JONSBO N4 Black NAS Pc Case, Walnut Wood, 8-Drive Bay/6 * 3.5 "HDD (4 hot-swap,2 Non hot-swap),2 * 2.5SSD,Micro ATX Chassis, USB3.2Gen2Type-C, 1x120mm Fan Built-in, Black

Decoupled drive cages and a slow 120 mm fan in front of the drives.

from CA$160

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Power supply

be quiet! Pure Power 12 750W Gaming PSU, 80 Plus Gold, ATX 3.1, 12V-Rail

Efficiency at low load matters more than wattage; the box idles at 40–60 W.

from CA$126

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Drives

CMR NAS drives, sized to your target

The biggest line item at scale. Size them with the calculator.

Open the drive-count calculator

Known subtotal: CA$286 · prices verified for 2 of 6 required parts; not priced: Board with CPU, Memory, Boot drive, Drives

A NAS runs 24/7, and that changes every buying decision: a part that draws 20 extra watts costs you real money on the hydro bill every year (see the power-cost guide below), and a drive that would be unremarkable in a desktop can collapse during a parity rebuild. Pick for low idle draw and for CMR.

Board with CPU: a board with a soldered Intel N100 is the 2026 default for a home NAS: 6 W TDP, four cores, and most boards bring six SATA ports from the chipset. Board, memory and boot drive together idle around 10 to 15 W. Budget CA$180 to CA$260 in Canada.

Memory: the N100 takes a single SO-DIMM (DDR4 or DDR5, board-dependent), officially to 16 GB. ECC is not available on the N100. 16 GB runs a file NAS with Docker comfortably.

Boot drive: a small SATA or NVMe SSD, 128 to 256 GB. Do not boot from a USB stick: TrueNAS SCALE no longer supports it well and sticks die under constant writes.

Case: the widest price spread. A plain tower for four to six 3.5-inch drives runs CA$90 to CA$140; a compact NAS case with hot-swap trays quickly hits CA$200. Look for decoupled drive cages and a slow 120 mm fan in front of the drives.

Power supply: 350 to 450 W is plenty even for six drives. What matters is efficiency at low load, since the box draws only 40 to 60 W continuously: an 80 Plus Gold unit is worth it here.

Drives: CMR NAS drives, sized with the calculator. This is the biggest line item at higher capacities, so it is the number to optimize.

When DIY wins, and when it does not

DIY wins on hardware per dollar: an N100 build gives you more CPU, more RAM headroom and standard, replaceable parts than a prebuilt in the same price band. Two separate questions often get merged here. ZFS (TrueNAS) runs on an N100. ECC memory does not: Intel lists ECC support for the N100 as No. If you want ECC, choose a platform that supports it, such as an Intel Xeon E or a Ryzen board with ECC support, or a Synology DS925+ or DS923+, which ship with ECC memory; the ECC RAM guide covers when it is worth it.

A prebuilt wins on time and support. A Synology arrives, you run the setup wizard, and you never think about it again; DSM's app ecosystem (Photos, Drive, Surveillance Station) is genuinely good and has no DIY equal without assembling it yourself. If you value a finished product over a project, buy one: the prebuilt-vs-DIY comparison runs the numbers.

Buying the parts in Canada

Canadians cross-shop Amazon.ca, Canada Computers, Newegg.ca, Memory Express and Best Buy Canada. The cheapest N100 boards and cases tend to sit on Amazon.ca and Newegg.ca; Canada Computers and Memory Express are often better for a PSU or a case you want to see in person. We track Amazon.ca live as the baseline.

On importing from Amazon.com: for a NAS build it rarely pays. Once you add exchange, duty on some categories, brokerage and the harder path to a warranty claim or return, the landed cost usually matches or beats a local CAD price, and a dead PSU is far easier to replace when you bought it in Canada. The exchange rate is not a penalty; the point is total landed cost plus local support.